Telepathy, << tuh LEHP uh thee >>, is the communication of thoughts, feelings, or knowledge from one person to another without the use of the senses of hearing, sight, smell, taste, or touch. Telepathy is sometimes called mind reading or thought transference. An example of telepathy would be if one person thought of something specific and another person stated or wrote the thought correctly. To be telepathic, however, the performance would have to be repeated and could not be explainable in any other way.
Telepathy is part of the subject matter of parapsychology and is studied by scientists called parapsychologists. Parapsychologists believe that neither distance nor time affects telepathy. Thus, a person’s thoughts might be received by another person who is far away. Parapsychologists also believe that a person may know in advance the thoughts, feelings, or knowledge that another person will have at a later time. If true, this would be an example of precognitive telepathy.
Telepathy is considered a major form of extrasensory perception (ESP), which is an awareness of something without the use of the known senses. Telepathy is under scientific investigation. Its existence is still in question, but many scientists doubt its reality.
